With or Without You
by AshleyKazekage
Summary: Another Naruto fanfiction, tis a Kabuto Yakushi story, and it will contain spoilers from the manga, so please ensure you have read past chapter 580 :
1. ø: Prologue

**Hey Guys, time for a new story eh? I thank everyone that has read my other storie****s and left nice reviews ^~^ *hands everyone free cookie* **

This is going to be a Kabuto Yakushi story, and I will warn you;

**THIS STORY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM THE MANGA  
Please ensure you have read past chapter 580**

* * *

******[Prologue]**

My name is Kei.. Er.. I don't know my last name.. I was saved from a war when I was an infant, I don't remember much, but I only remember distinctly screams and shouting during one night when I was in my baby cot. The smooth wooden bars which kept me confined inside. I was a toddler, perhaps 3, I'm not sure, my memory isn't that clear. I was kneeling while holing tightly onto the bars, trying to peer through the gaps confused.  
By the time the sun rose, no one ever returned to me, not that woman who normally feeds me, or that man that would laugh loudly, or that boy with the calm expression. Those were the only three I remember, however I don't know who they are. The only way I know my name is because every time someone was around me, all I would hear was 'Kei'.  
A day or so later a kind woman in black and white clothing discovered me wailing from starvation.

Since that day I've been with that woman, she is what we call a nun. She and two other nuns and a priest we call 'father' run this poor orphanage where I was raised alongside many other children. I bonded relatively well with a boy named Urushi, he seemed to be the leader of our friend group which consisted of two other boys – Akako and Bakusui, and a girl, Raira.

We're all aged between 7 and 9, Akako being the youngest, and I'm the second youngest by 3 days. Urushi is the oldest.

The woman who discovered me, she wears round glasses and has long wavy light blonde hair, and a very calm expression always on her pretty face. I don't know her name, but everyone refers to her as mother.

The story begins during a play session, when I discover something that changed my life forever.


	2. I: Lets Play! Wait! What's That?

**THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE MANGA  
Please ensure you have read past chapter 580**

* * *

**[Chapter 1]  
**

I was awakened by the sounds of the blinds being opened and rays of sunlight. "Morning children, it's time to arise and get ready for morning prayer." Chimes the soft voice of mother. I open an eye to look at the bed on the right of mine, Urushi's bed. The bed on the left of mine is empty, there are a few empty ones in the room. The beds are evenly spaced 40cm apart. I checked to see if he was awake. He hid his face in his pillow. I do the same as the sound of the other kids shuffling the bed sheets while getting up echo through the room.  
Moments later, mother approached us and gently pulled our blankets off. "Urushi, Kei, you two as well." She says. Urushi's cheeky giggles fill the room, other kids start talking as they leave. I jump out of bed and grin at mother.

"Morning mother!" I say. She smiles down at me.

"Good morning angel, may Kami bless you." Mother replies. I nod energetically.

"Yup yup you too mother!" I reply. "Come on Urushi!"

Urushi jumps out of bed grinning. "I was the last one up!" He cheers. I laugh and shake my head.

"And tomorrow I want you to be the first, alright?" Mother says to him. Urushi frowns.

"No way!" Urushi complains, grabbing his cap with large buttons sewed onto it.

"But if we do, we'll get the food first!" I mention. Urushi looks at me.

"You're.. right! Come on!" Urushi shouts, grabbing my wrist.

"Wh-Wah!" Urushi began running, pulling me along. I almost fell, but managed to catch myself and run along behind him.

We run to the dining hall, it's as large as you would think, but to us, it was big. A typical room with many tables and small stools as seats – 4 stools to a table. Everyone was already seated, Urushi and I look for Raira and the others before sitting down with them. We're not allowed to sit at the table at the front, that table is for Hiroyoshi-oto-sama (he owns the orphanage) and for Hikari-obaa-sama (Hiroyoshi's wife, she is also a nun like Mother, and Hiroyoshi is a priest.).

"Here!" Urushi shouts over the other kids as he pulls me to a seat. We both sit down and as we did, Mother came into the room, and everyone went silent. It's a morning ritual, we have to be quiet in order for our morning prayer to 'Kami', we pray three times a day, before each meal.

"Alright, my children, let us begin our morning prayer." Mother says in the most softest tone. We all close our eyes and put our hands together and bow.

"Itadakimasu!" We all pray in tune. Mother stood up and began handing out the cheap plastic bowls to each of us, each having the same, half-filled with potato soup.

We began slurping it down straight away, and finish about 5 minutes later, we were then let off to go play. We all ran outside as fast as we could.

"So where to today guys?" Raira asks, grinning at us all – she looks up to no good whenever she grins.

"Wanna play hide and seek again? Same scores as yesterday!" Akako suggests.

"No! That means Kei is still winning!" Urushi complains.

"Just because I have the best hiding spots." I boast, smirking slightly.

"Yeah! You and your smug attitude!" Akako groans, punching my arm, causing me to yelp.

"Ow! That hurt!" I complain, rubbing my arm.

"Stop being so smug then!" Akako whines.

"But it's true!" I shout.

"Shut up!" Akako shouts back. Raira gasps.

"Akako! You said a naughty word!" She whispers.

"... It's Kei's fault.." Akako says, bluntly pointing at me.

"Is not!" I retort.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too times infinity!" Akako gushes.

"That's cheating!" I argue.

"He won that one, Kei." Raira giggles.

"No! I refuse to lose!" I gush.

"Well you can't win everything!" Urushi complains, folding his arms.

"Fine, we'll play hide and seek!" Akako says. "But new scores!"

"Deal!" Urushi says.

"Yup deal!" Raira concurs. I nod my head and we look at Bakusui. He seemed to be spacing – as usual. Poor kid.. his parents were killed right in front of him, and the killer almost killed him as well, if it weren't for the kind shinobi that saved his life and brought him here, Bakusui wouldn't be alive..

"Bakusui!" Raira says, shaking his shoulder.

"Huh?" Bakusui blinks a few times. "What?"

"We're gonna play hide and seek, but we're staring a new game coz Kei keeps winning." Raira explains.

"Oh, yeah! Okay!" Bakusui replies.

"Who's gonna be it?" I ask. They all stare at me, but never said a word. "... It's me, isn't it?"

"Yep!" Urushi replies. I was about to complain, but then they all began to run away.

"Ughh, One! Two! Three!" I began counting.

A minute later, I open my eyes and look around in each direction, before deciding which way I would go to start looking. It was quiet, they weren't giggling as usual, they must be playing serious this time.

After a while of wondering, I came across a few broken trees, big ones. In a small distance, a town with every building destroyed. "Could that be.. Kikyo Pass?" I inquire. I'd heard about the war there a weeks ago, but I never imagined it to be closish to our orphanage. I tilt my head and wonder about the broken trees. They were so big, how on earth could they be split so easily? Perhaps.. Shinobi?

I was in awe, I haven't seen anything like a town before, and I wanted to explore it.. but something about it seemed dark and scary.. I decided against it. I decide just to linger around the broken trees. I found a hollow stump, and inside was a coiled snake. I smile, I think I've found a new hiding spot. Of course, after I somehow get rid of the snake. I was about to naively reach my hand in to it when I thought I heard a very quiet whimper. Was it the snake? I shake my head, no that's impossible, snakes don't whimper. I look around, could it be one of my friends? I grin. Yes, of course! They must know I'm here and have no where else to hide!

I carefully climb down the small stump and start running to another stump. Then another, and another. I scratch my head. I must be hearing things.

I turn around to find my way back to the stump, when I saw something alerting! A boy was sitting against one of the stumps with blood running down his head. I gasp loud and run over to him.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I kneel down in front of him, he looked like he was... gone.. I put my hand on his shoulder and shake him gently. "Hey! Wake up!" I was panicking so badly, I could feel my heart racing. "Please! Wake up!"

The boy remained motionless. I was panicking so badly, words couldn't describe my shock. The boy never made a sound, but I did finally notice.. his stomach was moving.. unevenly, and raggedly, but it was moving. He was alive!

"Kei?"

I turn around, seeing Urushi standing there with a confused expression – until he saw the boy. His eyes widen.

"Oh by gosh! What happened?" Urushi questions, kneeling down beside me.

"I don't know! I found him like this!" I say. "Quick! Urushi, go find Mother or someone!"

"Right!" Urushi runs off back towards the orphanage. I check the boy's head, moving strands of his silver hair, identical to mine, to check for the wound causing the blood. Mother tells us that to help cease bleeding, we must put pressure on the wound. I couldn't find the wound, and I was beginning to worry.

Few minutes later, Mother came running alongside Urushi, Raira and Akako. "Kei! What happened, what's the matter?" Mother questions as she runs towards me.

"This boy! He's hurt!" I reply, just as she kneels down beside me.

"Oh dear!" Mother exclaimed.

"This kid must be from that town..." Akako says, pointing to the ravaged Kikyo Pass in the distance. "You know.. where the war was."

"What do we do? There's a lot of blood coming out of his head.. He's gonna die soon..." Urushi mentions. "Are you gonna take him along?"

"Urushi.." Mother says, putting her hands over the boy's head, and moments later they began to glow green. I blink in awe. "His wounds aren't as bad as yours were-"

The boy coughs weakly, opening his right eye slowly.

"Don't worry." Mother says. "I know some medical ninjutsu."

The boy looks up at mother, unable to open his eyes completely. He lowers his head shyly, and coughs again.

"Dear boy, do you know who you are?" Mother asks.

The boy was silent.

"What's your name?" She repeats. Again, the boy said nothing, from where I was kneeling, I could hear his breathing was raspy. "What about your parents?" The boy still said nothing, his eyes lower to the ground.

"Jeez! He knows nothing!" Urushi grumbles.

"Kei," Mother says, looking at me. "lend him your shoulder."

I nod and stand up, but bend over. I put my hand on the bottom of the boy's arm, and he slowly, hesitantly lifts his arm and pull it over my shoulder, and slowly stand him up, but he almost fell back over. He gave a grunt of pain.

"You were lucky you know.." Urushi says to the boy. The boy looks at Urushi and coughs. "If Kei hadn't of found you, you'd be dead!"

"Urushi, please." Mother huffs. Urushi just frowns.

"It's true though!" Urushi exclaims. I look at the boy, he lowers his head again.

"Urushi shut up." I gush.

"Oooh! Kei said a naughty word!" Akako scoffs, mocking Raira's voice from earlier. I only roll my eyes and smile at the boy.

"Don't worry, you're gonna be okay." I say. The boy glimpses at me for a moment, but says nothing.

When we get back to the orphanage, the clock tower on the front said 13:20. We hadn't noticed we'd been out for so long! We had probably missed lunch.. oh well, it's a good thing we did, other wise I might not have found this boy..

I help him up the four steps and into the building. Once inside we head to the dining room, and sit at a table. I help the boy sit on the stool, while Mother sat beside him with a first aid box and bandaged his head. She cleaned the dry blood off him and he was almost like new, except the blood stains on his shirt. I stood beside the stool, looking at the boy, I don't know why, but I felt the need to be near him.

"My my, your wounds are healing quickly." Mother says to the boy, giving a shining smile. The boy still said nothing. I was so curious about his voice.

"At least say thank you! Don't you know your manners!" Akako scowls. I notice Urushi had disappeared. A few other kids walk into the room, saying they heard something about a new kid.

"Hey!" Urushi suddenly shouts from no where, he then slams a Kabuto Samurai Helmet on the boy's head as hard as he could.

"Ouch..!" The boy whimpers.

"Wear this, in case something happens again!" Urushi shouts. I cringe slightly.

"Urushi! He has a wound on his head you stupid moron!" I shout at him.

"But you never know!" Urushi shouts back, jumping off the table. "Heh, manners aside... It's the first time I've met someone that doesn't know his own name or parents."

"Hey, I don't know my parents either." I mention.

"Yeah, but you were a baby! That doesn't count!" Urushi says. The boy looks at Urushi.

"You're going to live here." Mother says, placing her hand gently on the boy's cheek, making him look at her. "In other words, from today I'll be your Mother. You can ask me anything." She says with the most graceful smile.

"It's annoying that he doesn't have a name though.." Urushi says, patting the helmet on the boy's head.

"That's true.. what should we use..? Hm.." Mother trailed off in thought. She took one look at him and smiles. "How about Kabuto?"

"Random!" Akako complains.

"Vague.." Raira says.

"That's just literal!" Another boy, Daiko, says.

"There's no need to think too much about it." Mother says. The boy was still silent, but he then smiled! He smiled! He actually laughed!

"Ah! He just laughed! He must have liked the name!" Urushi exclaims.

"That's nice..." Mother replies. "You know what, Kei, I think you should be in charge of Kabuto here. Since you are the one who saved his life."

"What..? Me?" I ask. "In charge?"

Kabuto looks at me shyly.

"Yes, as in, show him how things work around here." Mother clarifies.

"Really? Me?" I ask excitedly. Mother smiles and nods.

"Yay! Kabuto! Come on!" I exclaim, grabbing the boy's wrist. He blinks.

"Wah!" I pull him off the chair and have him run behind me, as I run to the bedroom. Urushi follows.

"So, Kabuto! This is the bedroom! This is my bed, and that's Urushi's bed..! Oh wait, I should introduce us first! Hahah.. I'm Kei, and this moron here is Urushi." I explain. Kabuto nods slightly at us both.

"Yeah, the annoying Kei more like it!" Urushi scoffs.

"No way! You're more annoying!" I retort. Kabuto seemed to be watching nervously. I blink. "Ahah... This can be your bed!" I say, pointing to the bed left of mine. Kabuto looks at it and tilts his head.

"HAH! It's settled! Lets go find the others and introduce 'em!" Urushi exclaims. I nod.

"Good idea! But, they might be still hiding." I mention.

"Not me!" Akako's voice chimes. "So, Kabuto right?"

Kabuto nods shyly.

"Mannn is he ever gonna speak? Jeez." Akako huffs.

"Well I probably wouldn't want to speak to you either!" Urushi exclaims.

"What? Oh it is ON!" Akako growls.

"GUYS SHUT UP!" I shout, making them all cringe. "He wont want to listen to you lot fighting! Oh yeah! Kabuto, this is Akako, the weird, short-tempered guy."

"Yea- what!" Akako growls at me.

"Come on~! Kabuto, you can play hide and seek with us! Or.. help me find the other two." I say then laugh. Still having hold of his wrist, I begin running again, pulling him along.

"Wah!" Kabuto must have almost fell again, but he managed to catch his feet. I was gonna make Kabuto feel right at home!


	3. II: To Say Thank You

**THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE MANGA  
Please ensure you have read past chapter 580**

* * *

**[Chapter 2]  
**

I drag Kabuto outside, while Urushi and Akako follow close behind. "Looks like they might still be hiding!" I mention.

"Well go on Kei, go prove your '_skills_' and find them!" Akako says.

"Heh! I shall take Kabuto with me, you two wait here!" I exclaim. Urushi and Akako plop down into a sitting position, showing that they aren't going to move any time soon.

Kabuto was still quiet, never said a word. I was wondering if he will ever speak at all.. I still have hold of his wrist, and again, I start running, but he must have gotten used to the sudden pulling and running, because he didn't trip on his feet this time, he ran as well.

Once we were out of Urushi and Akako's sight, I slow down to a walk, Kabuto does the same, but he was panting.

"Have ya done much running before?" I inquire jokingly. Kabuto shakes his head the slightest bit and catches his breath. I laugh slightly. "It's okay. You'll get used to it.. especially with Urushi around." I mention. He gives a slight nod, not too sure on how he shout react. I smile comfortingly at him, I didn't want to make him nervous. "So, have you ever played hide and seek before?" I inquire. Kabuto shakes his head, and his eyes turn to the ground for a second before looking up at me again. I was about to continue talking when;

"..N-no..."

I blink. He actually spoke. It made my smile grow wider. "Well that's all right! I'll teach you. It's kinda simple really, all you gotta do is hide, and one person has to try and find everyone." I explain. Kabuto gives a nod of understanding, and looks around with his eyes.

Kabuto jumped at a small 'clink' on his helmet. He whimpers and turns around. I look to the ground seeing a small acorn, and then I look up into the tree above us, squirrels. I laugh.

"It's a good thing Urushi put that helmet on, huh Kabuto." I say. Kabuto blinked a few times, and squints his eyes at the ground, then looks up into the tree, and squints his eyes more. "Don't worry, it's only a squirrel." I say, putting my hand on his shoulder to reassure him, it made him jump. He didn't say anything but he turned to face me.

"Yo Kei!"

"What?" I turn around and see Bakusui and Raira walking towards us. I notice Kabuto step close behind me. "There you guys are!"

"I was about to complain about how long it was taking you to find us, but then I saw that kid behind you. What's going on?" Raira asks.

"Yeah about that.. haha, see I was looking for you, but then I found him," I begin, pointing over my shoulder with my thumb, pointing at Kabuto. "unconscious and kinda bleeding to death, so all this time was pretty much getting Mother to help patch him up and showing him around."

"Who are you?" Raira asks, randomly appearing in front of us when I wasn't looking. She made me jump. Kabuto lowers his head slightly, turning really shy.

"This is Kabuto." I reply, pushing Raira back. Raira doesn't understand the concept of personal bubbles, and sometimes it gets to me.

"He's kinda cute." Raira says jokingly. I smile and look over my shoulder at Kabuto, he was looking away with slight pink cheeks.

"No he's not!" Bakusui exclaims. "I'm the cute one!"

"Haha, yeah you're right!" Raira says. "Kei you can have Kabuto."

"What?" I question.

"When we're older and get married and stuff!" Raira exclaims.

"Ewww marriage.. gross!" Bakusui coughs.

"Yeah! That's for old people!" I exclaim. "Right Kabuto?" I look over my shoulder at him, he quickly nodded.

"We'll see~" Raira chimes. I shook my head and we began walking back to the orphanage, and I showed Kabuto around the entire building.

After supper it was time for bed. I lay there tiredly as everyone began drifting off. The last thing I remember seeing was Kabuto in his bed, lying on his stomach, staring at the helmet on the end of his bed.

I was awoken sometime later, not sure what time it was, but I did hear something.. footsteps? I open an eye, my head was facing Kabuto's bed, so that was the first thing I saw. Also noticing the fact that the bed was empty! I close my eye again …..

"Wh..?" I open both my eyes and rub them. Empty? I hear footsteps getting quieter. I look towards the door, Kabuto was walking there. "Kabuto?" I groan under a breath, rubbing my eyes again, I then let out a yawn. Kabuto tenses up on the spot. "Where are you going..? It's past curfew.. you'll get in trouble.." I murmur.

Kabuto's head lowers for a moment before he looked back up. "I-I.. I w-want to say.. thank you...t-to mother.." He stutters quietly. I was surprised, he's actually talking! Again this brought a smile to my face. But I had to shake it off.

"What for?" I ask, now with a more serious attitude. The last thing I want is for Kabuto to get in trouble his first day here.

"F.. for healing me.. Urushi.. said I.. should.." He quietly says. Another smile broke out of my face.

"Kabuto.. you should wait until morning." I say. But Kabuto had a look in his eye that he couldn't be swayed from doing this.

"But... I want.. to.."

My eyelids were feeling extremely heavy, and I felt like I would fall asleep at any second, so I just gave a nod, laid down and went back to sleep, and in my mind, hoping Kabuto wouldn't get into trouble.

* * *

Yes, short chapter I know~  
I promise the next chapter will be longer :)  
Thanks to those who read this story and enjoy it :D


	4. III: Shinobi

**Chapter 3**

I awoke the next morning, yawning loudly as I sat up. I look over at Urushi who was hanging half off his bed, his mouth wide open snoring, his pillow and blanket were on the floor. I then look to the other side, at Kabuto. He still hat his helmet above his head, but I saw a pair of glasses folded up inside it too. They looked an awful lot like mother's glasses..

"Umonooom..."

I look at Urushi, gargling in his sleep. "Idiot." I mock, getting out of bed.

"Noo...ooo...nugh.."

I step towards Urushi's bed and hold his nose.

"Uur-GWAH!" Urushi started to choke until he woke up, but fell off the bed. I grin down at him.

"MORNING!" I shout. His eyes narrow intensely, and he lays there for a moment.

"G...Good.. m-morning.." Not entirely recognising that voice, I look over my shoulder, it was Kabuto. He was rubbing his eyes, sitting up in his bed.

I smile. "Morning!"

"Ah ahh! Kabuto you're up!" Urushi pushes me down as he stands up. I hit my face on the wooden floor boards.

"Y-yeah.."

"Did'ja sleep alright? Well, did'ja?" Urushi questions, standing on me. He is so heavy it made me grunt.

"..Y.. yeah I di-"

"Hey! Aren't those mother's glasses?"

"Yes I-"

"Why are you wearing them! Hm?"

I roll over, causing Urushi to fall. He lands with a thud. I swear the whole building vibrated. "Urushi you're fat!" I exclaim as I stand up and brush myself off. "And stop yelling at Kabuto! It's not nice!" I stand beside Kabuto, protectively.

"Ayiee.. jeez Kei." He sits up rubbing his head.

I ignore him and face Kabuto. "Hey they do look like mother's glasses! How come you're wearing them?" I ask in a gentle tone, ignoring Urushi's groans.

"W.. well I couldn't s.. sleep last night.. and.. I wanted... t.. to thank mother... for everything.. but I got... in tr.. trouble.. and they got me to read the.. clock.. but I couldn't see it properly... and she gave these to me..." He explains, slowly and nervously, his eyes were at the ground the whole time.

I tilt my head slightly. "So you can't see properly? Huh.. I guess that explains the whole reason why you couldn't see that squirrel yesterday!"

He nods.

"Right, I'm hungry, lets go get breakfast!" Urushi exclaims, plopping an arm on both our shoulders, and pushing us out the door, ready for another day!

After breakfast mother approached us with a charming smile. "Urushi, Kei, Kabuto, please gather everyone, myself and the rest of us are going to teach you all medical ninjutsu."

3 years later and we were still doing the same old routines, only, we were getting to be quite talented with our medical ninjutsu.

We had to travel to a village somewhat far from the orphanage, it's called Konohagakure. I'd read about it in some books I found, it seemed like a nice place. It was flourishing with nature, flowers and other interesting plants were growing everywhere.

Our reason for being there was, to provide medical assistance to victims of the Third Great Shinobi War because they were lacking medical ninjas. We were shown to a small shelter with a tarp roof with a few low wooden tables and futons everywhere.

Urushi and I had set ourselves a small competition, on who could heal the most shinobis.

So far we had both healed 3 each. I was working on the forth, working beside Kabuto whom was also healing someone. Urushi was standing by us watching, waiting to be called for assistance.

"Kabuto, can you continue?" Mother called out.

"Yes, mother." Kabuto replies.

"And you Kei?"

"Yes, mother, I'm fine." I answer.

"I know it's for the institute, but why do we have to work with these shinobi?" Urushi complains.

"Money doesn't come from nothing... can you get me a bandage?" Kabuto replies.

"Yeah, I'll need one too, and a syringe. Thanks Urushi." I say.

Urushi groans at me then wonders off.

The patient Kabuto was working on began to speak. "You have a talent with medical ninjutsu, and you're not even a shinobi..."

"Mother taught us." Kabuto reaplies.

"Your name is Kabuto, isn't it? Why don't you become a shinobi? It would suit you. I'm sure of it."

"Sorry I'm not interested." Kabuto replies.

"Besides, the shinobi world looks really harsh and dangerous.." I mention.

"Yeah, and if we're going to be medical assistants like this, then we're better off to stay safe. Besides, I want to save money and be of help to the orphanage and mother. She did so much for me, yet the only thing I was able to do for her is give her glasses as a present." Kabuto explains.

"Haha yeah, she was so surprised." I laugh.

"Really? That's a pity.." The man spoke. Urushi came back with the bandages and syringe. I gave my patient a shot of medication and laid him down to rest. Kabuto bandaged his patient and walked to a wall, on the other side was a room where mother and the other owners went. He was listening in, I decided to not to pay much attention and continue helping patients.

After we were done we began heading back to the orphanage.

"I so won, I totally did." Urushi explains.

"Shut up already." I groan. "It was by one person anyway."

"But I still won! Right Kabuto! R- oi! Kabuto stop spacing already!" Urushi gushes.

I look at Kabuto curiously. He has seemed pretty spacey since he stopped listening in to that room..

"Oh, sorry. What did you say?"

Urushi frowns and sighs. "Don't worry! Just ignore me!"

"No, I wasn't ignoring you Urushi. Tell me."

"Ugh, so you reckon I'm way better than Kei, right? At medical ninjutsu and stuff, right? Right?"

"... No, from my observations, Kei is more skilled than you." Kabuto explains. I blink.

"Thanks!" I reply.

"NO! I healed more people than her! How the hell could you say that?" Urushi snarls.

Kabuto rolls his eyes. "Urushi, it's not the amount of people you can manage to heal, it's how good you are."

"Yeah but.. how the hell is Kei better than me? She's a _girl_!"

"Gender doesn't matter. Mother's better than all of us." Kabuto mentions.

"Yeah but she's older and more experienced!"

"It doesn't matter." Kabuto replies.

"Well, face the truth Urushi, I'm way better than you." I boast.

"But I'm better than you both." Kabuto sniggers. I roll my eyes, and upon seeing the orphanage coming up I nudge them both.

"Oi, race you guys there!" I shout.

"Deal!" Urushi shouts.

Kabuto laughs and runs as we do. Only he gets far ahead. Of course, Kabuto beat us back and went straight to his room. Urushi and I follow. Mother also followed, she had a very sad expression upon her. I couldn't ignore it.

"Mother, what's wrong?" I inquire.

She sighs and looks at Kabuto, whom was folding up the blankets on his bed. He then placed the helmet on top of the folded blankets, and turned to face us.

"Guys, I told you I'm the most skilled of us all." Kabuto says.

"You're not. But what? You're acting strange! The hell man!" Urushi gushes.

"I.. I'm going.. to be a shinobi.." Kabuto says.

Our jaws hit the ground.


End file.
